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What are you reading?

Finished Book 6 of The Expanse series. So apparently these are written in trilogies. So Book 6 ends the second trilogy which was bigger and better than the first, and the first was pretty good. I felt the resolution at the end felt a little anti-climatic or unsatisfying but not because the author was cheating. Corey plants things well in advance and plucks them from the ground later on.

Onto Book Seven.
 
Picked up a few more books from a local bookstore recently..

London: 150 Cultural Moments which is a local cultural history of London put together by Vanessa Brown and Jason Dickson, owners of said bookstore. The pair are very smart / witty, which is making it a fun read.

Fresh Air Fiend by Paul Theroux. For those not familiar he's an incredible travel writer, this is a collection of travel essays which I plan to stretch out for some time.

French Symbolist Poetry. On the recommendation of Tharmas I found a small collection for 5 dollars.

The Energy of Slaves by Cohen. Not so much reading it, but found a first edition of this at the aforementioned bookstore. It's one of my favourites by Cohen, so I picked it up.

The Grand Old Lady by Vanessa Brown. This was the first book she wrote on a hotel that existed in London from the 20s to 70s. Only 500 copies were printed, and I've wanted to read it for a few years. Finally I discovered that it's carried by our local libraries, so I picked it up two nights ago.
 
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks, a short-short book (45 pages) which collects four essays Sacks wrote just before and after learning he had terminal cancer of the liver. Compact and beautiful writing -- I read it in an hour but will be thinking about it for a long while.
 
A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys(1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is Hawthorne's retelling of six ancient myths. I knew vaguely of this book, but had never read a review. It's marvelous; Hawthorne adapted his tone and persona to children's literature as if it was his standard mode. I enjoyed each tale, especially the one about Medusa. Sure wish I'd read this, or had it read to me, at about age 10. Now I will have to read the follow-up, Tanglewood Tales.
 
History of the Italian People by Giuliano Procacci. Originally written in Italian, it's a history of Italy that I conveniently purchased some time ago and hadn't gone through yet. It goes back to 1000 AD and the first few chapters covering that early era make for an interesting read. After reading tons of European history already none of it is too eye-opening, but it's fun getting the Italian perspective.

I've also been casually browsing my own collection from time to time lately - there doesn't seem to be much that I'm too interested in, but I can at least pull stuff off the shelves and flip through it a bit.
 
I had the day off due to Remembrance day and checked out my two favourite locals. At the hippie shop I pillaged a new collection of poetry they just acquired, picked up a book by Phil Hall, Kathryn Mockler, and Denise Levertov. At the learned man sipping Scotch shop I did my usual check of the Africa and Sociology sections - happily walked away with Africa in History by Basil Davidson, which I've been going through tonight.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Finished Book 6 of The Expanse series. So apparently these are written in trilogies. So Book 6 ends the second trilogy which was bigger and better than the first, and the first was pretty good. I felt the resolution at the end felt a little anti-climatic or unsatisfying but not because the author was cheating. Corey plants things well in advance and plucks them from the ground later on.

Onto Book Seven.
Click to expand...

People were discussing this series here and I wanted to give it a try. The sixth was the only one available. Sometimes you can read series out of order.

Not this one.

But I got a sense of how good it is and will persevere in getting the first, so thanks.


I am constantly surprised and amused by the way the books I am independently reading seem connected.

Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe. Examining pre-colonisation modes of indigenous life.

And

World Engines. Destroyer. Stephen Baxter. Which coincidentally bases its society on much the same ethos.

Loving both.
 
I've just finished reading Book One of the Expanse (Leviathan Wakes) and loved it. I'm working through the first season of the show now and am very impressed with the production value.

Anyone care to explain something to me? Spoilers...


So there's Julie Mao. Rich daughter of an industrialist on Luna, who throws it all away to sign up on with the OPA.

Then the Scopuli is boarded by Protogen and set as bait for anyone to come along, get blown up, with the blame pointing to Mars. But this seems like a very long shot. All that's indicating Mars is involved is a single Martian comm device sending a bogus distress beacon. What if whoever came along for the rescue didn't notice the Martian markings? Or what if the first rescue ship was Martian?

Also, is it significant that Julie Mao is on the Scopuli, or just happenstance?

I can't quite follow the events. Protogen boards the Scopuli, captures the crew, tosses Julie in a locker, then infects the crew with the virus--then simply leaves? Julie breaks out of the locker, sees her crewmates infected--and then somehow gets to Eros? Where she dies from the virus in a hotel bathroom?


 
spikepipsqueak said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Finished Book 6 of The Expanse series. So apparently these are written in trilogies. So Book 6 ends the second trilogy which was bigger and better than the first, and the first was pretty good. I felt the resolution at the end felt a little anti-climatic or unsatisfying but not because the author was cheating. Corey plants things well in advance and plucks them from the ground later on.

Onto Book Seven.
Click to expand...

People were discussing this series here and I wanted to give it a try. The sixth was the only one available. Sometimes you can read series out of order.

Not this one.

But I got a sense of how good it is and will persevere in getting the first, so thanks.


I am constantly surprised and amused by the way the books I am independently reading seem connected.

Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe. Examining pre-colonisation modes of indigenous life.

And

World Engines. Destroyer. Stephen Baxter. Which coincidentally bases its society on much the same ethos.

Loving both.
Click to expand...

Bruce Pascoe copped a lot of flak over his book.
 
Disbelief flak?

He seems to support his claims well enough.

When I did a bit of anthropology, 30ish years ago, the fish trap evidence and the fire farming stuff was fairly well accepted then.


To add. When a friend of mine offered to fund a class set for the local High School, she was turned down.

Is it that people won't be separated from their prejudices for anything?
 
I just got a ton of books, it being the gifting time of year. Planning to start working on:

Patricia Limerick's "Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West"
Kevin O'Neill's ""City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala"
Michael Kearney's "Winds of Ixtepeji: Worldview and Society in a Zapotec Town"
Jacqueline Copeland-Carson's "Creating Africa in America: Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City:"​

Not sure in what order, perhaps they'll all just sit on my reading table for a while.


rousseau said:
I had the day off due to Remembrance day and checked out my two favourite locals. At the hippie shop I pillaged a new collection of poetry they just acquired, picked up a book by Phil Hall, Kathryn Mockler, and Denise Levertov. At the learned man sipping Scotch shop I did my usual check of the Africa and Sociology sections - happily walked away with Africa in History by Basil Davidson, which I've been going through tonight.
Click to expand...

Davidson laid the foundation for European historians to start telling the truth about African history. Too few answered the call, but I respect the hell out of him.

spikepipsqueak said:
Is it that people won't be separated from their prejudices for anything?
Click to expand...

Aw man, you have no idea.
 
Politesse said:
Davidson laid the foundation for European historians to start telling the truth about African history. Too few answered the call, but I respect the hell out of him
Click to expand...

Yea I saw on Goodreads that you'd read that exact title. I wasn't too familiar with his place in scholarship on Africa, but had checked out some of his books before and knew he was a well respected historian on the subject. I now see a few reviews mentioning similar to what you're saying.

I'm looking forward to a complete African history in a single volume that's a bit more up to date. The only similar title I owned previously is 'Africa from Early Times to 1800' and 'Nineteenth Century Africa' by P.J.M MaCewan. They seem to have been stripped of bias but are both ancient.
 
rousseau said:
Politesse said:
Davidson laid the foundation for European historians to start telling the truth about African history. Too few answered the call, but I respect the hell out of him
Click to expand...

Yea I saw on Goodreads that you'd read that exact title. I wasn't too familiar with his place in scholarship on Africa, but had checked out some of his books before and knew he was a well respected historian on the subject. I now see a few reviews mentioning similar to what you're saying.

I'm looking forward to a complete African history in a single volume that's a bit more up to date. The only similar title I owned previously is 'Africa from Early Times to 1800' and 'Nineteenth Century Africa' by P.J.M MaCewan. They seem to have been stripped of bias but are both ancient.
Click to expand...

If you're ever in the mood for a televised version, Davidson produced an excellent documentary series as well, just titled "Africa". I am hopeful that the establishment of the new museum complex in Benin City will spur some academic interest and publication on West Africa once it opens.

Macro-scale histories of entire continents are not as popular as they once were!
 
Politesse said:
Macro-scale histories of entire continents are not as popular as they once were!
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have guessed, but this type of book is my forte - I've read many macro-histories over the past five or so years. Which reminds me, I still own Europe: A History by Norman Davies, which was actually one of the first history books I ever owned (but never really went through). I should give it a look.

I also own Asia: A Concise History in which the author prefaces - the concept of this book is a bad idea, that might be worth looking at too while my library access is unavailable.

I'm starting to enjoy re-visiting my own collection - I thought I'd read all the history I needed, but I find I'm picking up more detail, and even qualities of the books themselves, that I hadn't seen before. For example, going through some Scottish History by T.C. Smout and wondering why not a single mention of the printing press. Wouldn't have given that a second thought when I originally bought the book.

Anyway I'll have to track down that documentary, sounds like something I'd enjoy.
 
Michał Rauszer Bastards of serfdom. History of Peasants Rebellions. Despite the title book is more about passive than active resistance and multitude of ways in which it was perpetrated.
 
The Real Cool Killers (1958) by Chester Himes, a celebrated pulp crime novel collected in The Library of America's Crime Novels anthology. In chapter one, a wild-eyed drunk starts a bar fight with a springblade knife. He slashes the bartender, who retaliates with a fireman's axe and severs the man's knife-wielding arm below the elbow. The man is so drunk that he continues to make slashing motions with his half-arm, then sees what has happened and says, "Wait a minute, you big mother-raper, 'til Ah find my arm! It got my knife in his hand."
I can't imagine what comes next, but I'm on board.
Himes was an African-American novelist and grew up near my old hometown, in Cleveland.
 
The Powder Mage trilogy and Blood of Empire trilogy (which is a follow up trilogy)
pretty decent mid-tier fantasy, mostly actiony breezy, as with a lot (most) fantasy it's at its best in the beginning where it's dealing with the ground-level human experience and world building and then sort of goes into a bit of a skid later on when all the gods and magic and blahblahblah starts to take over the story.
but if you like fantasy novels in general and especially stories that aren't a rehashed Hero's Journey cliche, you could do worse.

Gideon The Ninth
did you ever think to yourself "you know i really like the grimdark aesthetic and retro-future vibe of warhammer 40k with necromancers wielding swords in a giant galactic caste system based empire, but really wish that there could be a book written in that kind of world done by a 14 year old girl who just watched Community for the first time and is aping that dialogue style in everything she does"?
if you ever did, this book is for you. if you've never longed for a grimdark world where the lead character fires off witty rejoinders like "stick it up your butt", this is a muddled load of crap.
 
Just finished a recently released draft version of Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast, given the name The Pursuit of the Pankera. About 2/5 of the books are nearly identical; the original draft has better plot resolution but spends about 110 pages in Burroughs' Barsoom and about 60 in E.E. Smith's Lensman series, with Heinlein writing everyone as though they were a Heinlein character. The Barsoom section is mostly the plot spinning its wheels while going nowhere, as well. Pankera has a better ending, but isn't actually as good overall.

Rob
 
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